Call of the 12 Disciples activities

When last we met we saw the Temptation of Jesus and how he kicked the devil to the curb with some great memory verses.  This week we’re going to learn about the Call of the 12 Disciples and see what we can learn about and from them in our Sunday School.

Call of the 12 Disciples thoughts and meanderings

One thing I find intriguing as you read about the 12 disciples callings (of which we really only get like 6 of their details) is how different they are.

John the Baptist points out Jesus to two of his disciples (Andrew, and probably John), and they follow Jesus.  Andrew immediately goes and gets his brother Peter to share about the new teacher he’s met.

This is a question I’m going to repeat over and over to myself as I read the Gospels with the kids, but how often am I so excited about Jesus I tell people about Him?  It’s not as often as I’d like in real life.

Matthew is so excited about Jesus, he invites all of his friends.  But, since Matthew is a tax collector all of these friends are “sinners” (read people who don’t follow rules completely, or like Matthew work with the Romans, the list goes on, but just read ordinary people).

Phillip when it’s his turn goes to his friend Nathaniel (possibly Bartholomew, that’s a “discussion”) and invites him to meet Jesus.  Nathaniel wants nothing to do with him, but comes anyways because he’s a nice guy.

I look at Phillip and wonder how often do I ask when I’m afraid someone is going to dislike the question.

But of all the 12 disciples Peter is my favorite.  I feel a great affinity for Peter and his ability to put his foot in his mouth or his impulsiveness.  Peter after first almost calling Jesus an idiot for his fishing advice sees the great miracle Jesus did and immediately responds “Get away from me, for I am a sinful man.”  It reminds me of Isaiah and his response in God’s throne room.

But, enough of my ruminations and musings.  On to the kids’ Call of the 12 disciples activities.

Call of the 12 disciples activities

I had a great plan.  We were going to do a fun magnetic fishing activity.  Then I couldn’t find our magnets, except for the Magnetic Wooden Alphabet (affiliate link), so I tied some yarn to it and was going to go ahead with our activity, but they couldn’t pick up the fish….

Back to the Call of the 12 Diciples activity, end of my poor story

First, have your kids cut out some fish.  I had each of my kids make 4 fish, so we had 12 total.  On the back of the fish write the name of a person you want to witness to that isn’t a Christian, or a people group where a missionary is.

In theory, you’d then take turns catching the fish with your magnetic pole….  But, ours didn’t work, so I stole an idea from Fantastic Five for straw fishing.  And we caught our fish by sucking them up and successfully lifting them.  It was quite an adventure.

When you successfully caught a fish, then you took some time to pray for the person (or group) you pulled out.  I’ll admit my kids’ prayers that day were more perfunctory because they wanted to get back to playing, but it was a great start.

The next morning (because I had to make it), I had the kids as their morning devotional read about the disciples and write a little about what they learned.  They didn’t learn anything super impressive, but it got them thinking a bit more, which is one of my goals.

Call of the 12 Disciples resources

• Call of the 12 disciples lesson printable (includes notebooking page)
• Buck Denver Asks: What’s in the Bible? Volume Ten – Jesus is the Good News!(affiliate link)
•  Breakdown of who the 12 apostles are
• Illustrated Guide to the 12 apostles
• Jesus picks his disciples craft

Next up Jesus changes water into wine

Our Christmas fun since you last heard from me (in absolutely no chronological order)

Jeff and I cleaned out our closet and found a few lost Christmas presents (you can see lots of pictures in this collage of kids opening Christmas presents).  Superman gave me a “Dice Jail” for Christmas he made with Jeff, for when my dice roll badly in gaming, an all too often occurrence.

We hung out with family for Christmas, Princess and I saw Nutcracker (at the movie theater, it was a live simulcast from Russia), and one week our Sunday School class had no tables, so we made some…

We decorated gingerbread houses.  Princess gave Mimi the Christmas present she made her in the Winter Wonderland course (you’ll hear lots more about this because we still haven’t made most of the projects).  Princess has started taking pictures like she’s a blogger, which amuses me.  And I went to Salado with some friends from Bible study (Salado is a nearby cutesy little town that decorates for Christmas).

Christmas up in Dallas (or at least some of these).  After opening presents, we headed off to Dallas Arboretum and the kids had lots of fun building things in their kids’ area and climbing all over the ropes course.  I love the picture of my boys sleeping in the same bed, they always start in different beds and then sneak into the same one.  Oh, and that picture of Mac just cracks me up.